Simulation of Replacing Wheat with Rapeseed in Terms of Water and Economic Productivity in Lorestan Province

After soybean and oil palm, rapeseed has the third place in supplying vegetable oil in the world, so that it accounts for 14.7% of the total production of vegetable oil. The current research was carried out using modeling approach in order to simulate the replacement of wheat cultivation with rapeseed cultivation in terms of water and economic productivity in four locations (Aleshtar, Khorramabad, Pol-e Dokhtar, and Kuhdasht) in Lorestan province. APSIM model was used to simulate the growth and yield of wheat and rapeseed crops. The model validation results showed that it accurately simulates wheat and rapeseed grain yield with nRMSE of 8.6%. The results showed that wheat cultivation (3524.4 kg) had a higher grain yield than rapeseed cultivation (2750.2 kg). In addition, wheat cultivation system (1.45 kg m-3) compared with rapeseed cultivation (1.15 kg m-3) had higher water productivity. However, the difference between these two cultivation systems in terms of irrigation productivity was not considerable (0.11 kg m3). Also, economic productivity and net income of rapeseed cultivation system were 0.220 million tomans per cubic meter and 59.9 million tomans per hectare, respectively, while they were 0.014 million tomans per cubic meter and 41.1 million tomans per hectare, respectively, for wheat cultivation system. In general, the results approved that moving from wheat cultivation to rapeseed cultivation can be environmentally and economically sustainable in the agro-ecosystems of Lorestan province, especially in Khorramabad county.